Workers in Marseille, France build an almost life-sized recreation of undersea Stone Age cave paintings fo
To reach the only place in the world where cave paintings of prehistoric marine life have been found, archaeologists have to dive to the bottom of the Mediterranean off southern France.
Then they have to negotiate a 137-meter (yard) natural tunnel into the rock, passing through the mouth of the cave until they emerge into a huge cavern, much of it now submerged.
Three men died trying to discover this “underwater Lascaux” as rumors spread of a cave to match the one in southwestern France that completely changed the way we see our Stone Age ancestors.
Lascaux—which Picasso visited in 1940—proved the urge to make art is as old as humanity itself.
Eva and Franco Mattes’s “Stolen Pieces” series, objects taken from works by (clockwise from top left): Alberto Burri, Vasily Kandinsky, Jeff Koons, Richard Long, Gilbert & George, Joseph Beuys, Marcel Duchamp, and César. COURTESY THE ARTISTS
Artists have long gotten away with murder, sometimes literally. After Benvenuto Cellini killed his rival, the goldsmith Pompeo de Capitaneis, in 1534, Pope Paul III—a Cellini fan—reportedly pardoned the Florentine artist, declaring that men like him “ought not to be bound by law.” In 1660 the Dutch painter Jacob van Loo stabbed a wine merchant to death during a brawl in Amsterdam, and then fled to Paris. But, as the art historians Rudolf and Margot Wittkower have noted in their vigorously researched 1963 treatise on the behavior of artists, Born Under Saturn, van Loo had no problem being elected to the Royal Academy there just two years later. His reputation as an artist was what mattered.
Artists have not only indulged in criminal behavior and then been forgiven for it, by philosophers and historians, princes and popes, they have also sometimes openly advertised it. “I do not understand laws,” Arthur Rimbaud wrote in 1873, summing up the attitude of the renegade artist. “I have no moral sense. I am a brute.”
The reign of the Hero has come to an end. As humanity faces increasing crisis and collapse, we come to a threshold where the archetype of the Hero can no longer be our saviour. We have entered a liminal time – a space between stories – and so we must bend and instead look to, and learn from, the boundary-crossing, shape-shifting Trickster.
Join Ben Murphy and John Wolfstone as they explore the significance of this cultural transition and how it applies to each of our lives.
Crimes of the Future director David Cronenberg is expecting a major response to his graphic new body horror film.
During an interview with Deadline, the 79-year-old filmmaker said he’s expecting a lot of people to be ‘revulsed’ by the movie – and anticipates walkouts.
“There are some very strong scenes,” he explained. “I mean, I’m sure that we will have walkouts within the first five minutes of the movie. I’m sure of that. Some people who have seen the film have said that they think the last 20 minutes will be very hard on people, and that there’ll be a lot of walkouts. Some guy said that he almost had a panic attack.”
“I say, ‘Well, that would be OK’,” said Cronenberg about the potential reactions to Crimes of the Future. “But I’m not convinced that that will be a general reaction. I do expect walkouts in Cannes, and that’s a very special thing. [Laughs] People always walk out, and the seats notoriously clack as you get up, because the seats fold back and hit the back of the seat. So, you hear clack, clack, clack. Whether they’ll be outraged the way they were with Crash, I somehow don’t think so. They might be revulsed to the point that they want to leave, but that’s not the same as being outraged. However, I have no idea really what’s going to happen.”
Crimes of the Future is a twisted return to sci-fi horror for Cronenberg, who previously brought us the likes of Scanners and Videodrome.
Here’s the official synopsis: “As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. Accompanied by his partner, celebrity performance artist Saul Tenser showcases the metamorphosis of his organs. Meanwhile, a mysterious group tries to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.”
A flight was postponed just before takeoff after a number of passengers received some eerie pictures on their phones.
According to local reports, the passengers were set to travel from Israel to Turkey, but the pilot decided to turn back to the terminal at Ben Gurion Airport amid the panic.
Israeli publication Kan News noted how the images showed a series of plane crashes, with no one knowing who was responsible for sending them.
Passengers were understandably worried after receiving these images before takeoff. Credit: IAA/Getty
One passenger who was aboard the flight when it was aborted told the outlet: “We got on the flight and the plane started moving.
“Most people received a request for a photo confirmation in AirDrop, some approved and some did not.
“The plane stopped and the flight attendants asked who got the pictures.”
As police swarmed the plane, the passenger said they were escorted off the flight, adding: “The airport manager told us there was a security incident.
“They took all our luggage out of the plane for a second check.”
Another image showed the wreckage of a 2009 Turkish Airline crash. Credit: Creative Commons
Adding to this, local radio broadcaster Galei Zahal reported that 166 passengers received the unnerving images.
After they notified the cabin crew of the unusual activity, the pilot decided to return the Turkish Airline plane to have the incident investigated by security.
Among the pictures were two of wreckages, one of which was of a Turkish Airline plane that crashed in Amsterdam in 2009 and led to the deaths of nine passengers.
A second showed the 2013 wreckage of the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 that crashed in San Francisco, killing three.
The larger-than-life composition is mostly invisible to the naked eye. Advanced technology helped uncover the stunning composition.
Deep in the dark recesses of a limestone cave in Alabama soar life-sized figures that span earthly and spiritual realms. Traced into the mud of the cave ceiling by torchlight more than a thousand years ago, the sprawling scene is so enormous and faint it cannot be discerned by the naked eye—yet the ancient etchings are being celebrated as one of the largest rock-art creations in all of North America, and the largest to ever be discovered in a cave.
In a study published today in the journal Antiquity, researchers describe how they used a process known as 3D photogrammetry, originally developed to capture vast expanses of Earth via aerial photos, to uncover the enigmatic images sheltered in an underground system in the Southeast United States known prosaically as “19th Unnamed Cave.” Its location is shielded to prevent looters and casual cavers who could damage or destroy the ancient artwork for profit or by mistake.
It was almost a foregone conclusion that David Cronenberg would be bringing his upcoming “Crimes of the Future” to this coming May’s Cannes Film Festival.
The film is now being screened for international programmers, and I was lucky enough to find one reaction that will make absolutely every cinephile excited about the legendary director’s much-anticipated comeback vehicle…
“I cannot say much, obviously, but if people thought “Crash” was divise back in 1996, this is going to create way more chaos and controversy for sure. The last twenty minutes are a very tough sit. I expect walk-outs, faintings and real panic attacks (I almost had one myself!) at the Lumière theatre. No hyperbole, I promise.”
“Seydoux’s role is way too bonkers and RADICAL to contend for a Cannes Best Actress award in my book, but I’d love to be proven wrong. I see no precedent in Cannes for a performance of that caliber/genre gaining momentum with a jury … I mean Seydoux basically plays a (very oft-naked) Gina Pane-like artist of the near future.”
Please inject this movie into my veins right this minute.
Cronenberg hasn’t directed a film since 2014’s “Map to the Stars.” This latest one, his return to sci-fi after an almost 23 year absence, is also rumoured to the be 79-year-old’s swan song.
Extended Synopsis for”Crimes of the Future”:
“Taking a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. This evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of trans-humanism, others attempt to police it. Either way, ‘Accelerated Evolution Syndrome’ is spreading fast. Saul Tenser is a beloved performance artist who has embraced Accelerated Evolution Syndrome, sprouting new and unexpected organs in his body. Along with his partner Caprice, Tenser has turned the removal of these organs into a spectacle for his loyal followers to marvel at in real time theatre. But with both the government and a strange subculture taking note, Tenser is forced to consider what would be his most shocking performance of all.”
Rage (written as Getting It On; the title was changed before publication) is a psychological thriller novel by American writer Stephen King, the first he published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was first published in 1977 and then was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books. The novel describes a school shooting, and has been associated with actual high school shooting incidents in the 1980s and 1990s. In response King allowed the novel to fall out of print, and in 2013 he published a non-fiction, anti-firearms violence essay titled “Guns”.
An innovative retrospective of work by Jonas Mekas reveals the fundamental honesty of his “diary” films.
Jonas Mekas, in his hometown, Semeniskiai, Lithuania, in a 1971 photograph by Antanas Sutkus.Credit…Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / LATGA-A, Vilnius
A Lithuanian refugee who landed in New York City in 1949 at the age of 27, Jonas Mekas became a founder of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, Film Culture magazine and Anthology Film Archives. He was the first full-time critic at The Village Voice, writing about film, and a widely published poet. But he also made scores of collagelike “diary” films that documented his busy, art-filled life.
